The One Who Got Away
by livetowrite4
Summary: The 74th Hunger Games in the perspective of the girl from District 5.


**A lot of credit should go to LookABunny who helped me very much with the creation and the brainstorming of this story. I wouldn't be able to write it without your help! Thank you!**

**Read and Enjoy!**

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"Wake up! Wake up!" I open my eyes to my little sister jumping on my bed, "The Reaping is today!" She jumps on top of me and her red hair covers my whole face.

"Eliana, get off of me!" I laughed.

"Are you going to be a tribute this year?" She asks me. One of her front teeth is missing, but she smiles as if it's not. She just turned 7 two weeks ago. My parents don't let her watch the Hunger Games like other children get to. They say she'll start acting violent if they allowed her to. She doesn't understand that if I'm a tribute, I might die, so she thinks that if I'm in the Hunger Games, I'll go to the Capitol, wear pretty dresses, and then come home. What she doesn't know is that if I get picked at the Reaping, I'll be shipped off to the Capitol to be put in an Arena with 23 other kids where only one comes out. And my odds to be that one coming out would be very slim if I ever got picked.

I frown a bit, but I smile for her, "Maybe."

"Mama says she doesn't think you will be, but she'd be very proud if you were," Eliana gets off my bed as my mother yells for her to leave me alone. My mother cooks her special Reaping breakfast with some special food that you don't always get in the District. It's been a tradition ever since my brother first went.

Of course she would be proud of me. That's what the district wants you to be when you are picked. But in all honesty, I am scared. I know it would be my duty to be my district's tribute, but I would let everyone down. I am too scrawny to fight anyone off. The only thing I have is my intelligence and that doesn't help when there is a child with a knife chasing after you

My parents are pharmacists in our community. They both have very odd jobs for being in the "power" District. Many of the people here stop their education once they are sixteen, but they didn't until they were twenty. It's very odd for people to get a higher education here. Most end up working at the power plants. My parents' jobs provide us with enough, so none of us have to put our name in the pool to get tessera. They are very proud people, so they never want to take what they have not earned.

My brother, Kiran, is 19 years old. He wants to be a teacher, but the power plants are losing many workers from 'accidents' and the demand for more power is rising, so he might be forced to work there. I really hope he doesn't. Kiran is the smartest person I know. He always helped me with school and he would always take me out on nature walks and teach me when I was a kid. Education is very limited in District 5. Unless it has to do with harnessing the energy of the earth, then, in the eyes of the leaders, it's irrelevant. Kiran is too intelligent to be sentenced to a life of long hours and low pay.

My family is sitting around the table full of food and they all grin when they see me coming down the stairs. I chuckle to myself when I look at all of them. Our family is very peculiar in the fact that we all have red hair which is very uncommon in District 5.

"Levinia, come sit down! I've got something very special just for you!" My mom points to the pastry by the empty chair.

My eyes open widely and I blink a few times. I haven't had a pastry in a long time. The old man who owned the bakery two blocks down died a few years ago and since everyone has been forced to work in the power plants, no one has opened it up again.

Everyone starts laughing at me. My brother looks a little worried, but everyone else is very happy.

"I had to keep my eye on Eliana. She was ready to eat the whole thing," my dad chuckles.

"Where did you get it?" I asked my mom.

"I made it... well I made it a couple times," she smirked, "I burnt it the first two tries."

"Thank you," I gave her a hug.

"Now eat up!" My dad said as he had the newspaper in front of his face, "no child of mine is going to the Reaping with an empty stomach." I wonder why he reads the paper anyways. It's nothing that he doesn't already know. I guess it's to make fun of the Capitol's "problems". He finds them very trivial.

I savored the moment, but I could see I had little time to get ready.

At the Reaping, you are supposed to be in your best dress and represent your district well. The Reaping is televised for all of Panem to see. They have always had the Hunger Games as a source of entertainment for the Capitol. The actual purpose of the Hunger Games is because District 13 had a rebellion and they failed miserably, so to make sure that the rest of the Districts don't do the same, we've been shipping off kids to the Arena to die. Most people don't share my opinion of the Hunger Games, those people being my parents and the rest of the District. My brother is the one who made me question it, but we are not supposed to talk about it. Nevertheless, it's the price we have to pay and it will keep on going as it always has.

I dash upstairs and put on the outfit my mother laid out for me last night. It's a white summer dress, one of my favorites.

We leave the house all together, but I soon leave them once we are at the town square to go in line. They don't hug me or say goodbye. You are not supposed to grieve over your children during the Reaping.

Children's fingers are pricked and then a drop of blood is put in a journal. It is then scanned to ensure that every child from the District attends the Reaping. It is a very systematic ordeal.

Pulchra Laus is already up on stage with her outrageous attire. Her shoes make her resemble a tower even more than she already does. She is our District's escort, and she has been for the past five years. You can tell by her behavior and obnoxious accent that she is from the Capitol. Her every move is thought out, yet every word she speaks is not.

"Happy Hunger Games!" she smiles, "And may the odds be ever in your favor."

Once the video about why we are all here – "seventy-four years ago…" – Pulchra goes over to the huge fish bowl on the left. She moves her hand around the small pieces of paper until she finds one to her liking. She finally plucks one quickly and moves over to the mic.

"Levinia Veta," my name echoes through the town square.

I get out of the line and start walking towards the stage.

"_Don't panic,"_ I tell myself, _"don't show weakness."_

It was too much to handle. I walked onto the stage and greeted her. I don't remember the next few minutes very clearly. I was trying to forget what just happened, but I should have seen it coming. I did have my name in there four times, so I did have a chance of being picked. I didn't know that my odds were so bad though.

My sister was smiling at me and it made my eyes teary. She was so proud of me, but she did not know what I was going into. I smiled back at her, but I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Even her joy was too much for me to handle. How was I supposed to handle the Arena if I couldn't handle seeing my sister's face?

"Castor Diya," She said into the mic again. I knew who he was. I went to school with him until he dropped out two years ago. He walked up with a paralyzed jaw and fear stricken eyes. He tried to keep his composure, but his legs were a bit shaky on his way up.

She congratulated us and then we were escorted away from the stage.

I didn't know what to do, so I kept my mouth shut and followed them.

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**I hope you enjoyed it and please leave a review!**


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